1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a soft elastic cushion for use in conjunction with an orthopedic aid such as an insert.
2. The Prior Art
It is desirable to provide such a soft elastic insert, which generally consists of silicone, but may be made of other comparable materials as well, with a textile cover because the textile covering is more pleasant on the skin than silicone. Furthermore, it is substantially easier for parts of the body resting against such a cover to slide on or be displaced than along a silicone surface. Especially in conjunction with inserts for feet, such a textile covering is advantageous in that the foot can then slide into the shoe on the textile insert.
However, it has been found to be very difficult to glue or laminate such a layer to silicone. It is also very difficult to bond a textile layer to the still-liquid silicone because the textile material becomes completely penetrated by the silicone, and no clean textile cover can be produced.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a soft-elastic cushion for use in conjunction with an orthopedic aid having a textile covering.
According to the basic idea of the invention, a textile composite comprising at least two layers is arranged on the soft-elastic cushion. This makes it possible to provide one layer specifically for the adhesion to or connection with the soft-elastic cushion. A clean outer textile layer remains preserved in this way.
The textile composite preferably has a textile cover material, which is in contact with the human body, and which is therefore arranged on the side of the textile composite facing away from the soft-elastic cushion. This layer is joined with the soft-elastic cushion by the textile composite. Furthermore, the textile composite preferably has a foil to which the cover textile material is bonded. Such a textile composite can be simply inserted in a tool for manufacturing the soft-elastic cushion and injected from behind. In this production process, the foil prevents the material used for producing the soft elastic cushion, which is usually silicone, from penetrating the textile cover material. For producing the adhesion of the foil directly to the silicone, the tool should be heated to at least 120xc2x0 to 150xc2x0 C. The foil is preferably formed by a polyurethane sheet because the handling of such a sheet is particularly simple and the textile cover can be bonded to the polyurethane sheet in a simple manner as well. Furthermore, the polyurethane sheet assures safe screening against the silicone.
According to a preferred further development of the invention, the textile composite comprises a second textile fabric for making the connection with the soft-elastic cushion. This second textile fabric may be a particularly simple textile fabric or also a knitted material, which is comparatively coarse-meshed and permits the material for producing the soft-elastic cushion to penetrate in a particularly positive way. The soft-elastic cushion is preferably formed from silicone and/or a multi-component PU elastomer because the latter can be processed in a particularly simple manner.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the textile composite consists of a foil that is laminated on both sides. The textile cover material is arranged on one side and the second textile fabric on the other. It is favorable if the textile composite comprises three layers. It is also entirely possible to provide additional layers especially if this leads to special benefits when the individual layers are joined. Furthermore, it is also conceivable to substitute for the sheet a comparatively impermeable textile fabric, so that there is a textile cover, then an intermediate layer that is impermeable to the silicone, for example an intermediate layer of textile material, and a second textile fabric for joining the textile composite with the cushion.